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BELGIUM FRANCE EUROPEAN UNION IRELAND HONG KONG KOREA MEXICO ITALY SWITZERLAND VENEZUELA |
NONCITIZEN VOTING AROUND THE WORLD As the labor market globalizes, countries rightly are concerned about how to foster a sense of belonging and civic responsibility among the migrant workers on whom they depend. Western Europe began to wrestle with this question early in its regionalization process. After the creation of the European Commission in 1967 and the formation of a customs union in 1968, countries began to embrace the idea of enfranchising noncitizen residents. This idea spread and, from 1963 to 1992, 15 countries in Europe, Latin America, and the British Commonwealth approved varying forms of noncitizen voting rights, usually on a reciprocal basis within groups of affiliated nations—as within the Nordic Union or between Portugal and its former colonies. In 1992, as the European unification process accelerated, members of the European Community (as it was then called) agreed that citizens who were living in other member nations could vote in municipal and European Parliament elections of the host country. Today, approximately 40 countries have approved some form of immigrant suffrage. Since 1994, Belgium, Austria, and Rome have approved laws according various levels of voting rights to noncitizen residents. Their logic is simple and
sensible, and it addresses the rhetorical question asked by the legal
scholars T. Alexander Aleinikoff and Douglas Klusmeyer in their book,
Citizenship Policies for an Age of Migration: “Why should [a European
Union] citizen who has just recently moved to another member state enjoy a
right to vote in a local election while a third-country national who has
lived there for years but does not yet qualify for naturalization is
excluded from participating in his or her city?" RESOURCES ON
IMMIGRANT VOTING RIGHTS AROUND THE WORLD Immigrant Voting Project Timeline A list of countries around the world that have approved noncitizen voting rights
FRANCE
Les habitants de Saint-Denis favorables au droit de vote des étrangers aux
élections locales
Summary: Two-thirds of residents of Saint-Denis voted in a referendum
Sunday, March 26 in favor of allowing foreigners to vote in local
elections, 64.11% to 30.99% against. The mayor of Saint-Denis, Didier
Paillard (PCF), proposed the change, which has received unanimous support
from the left.
KOREA By Kim Rahn Staff Reporter An ethnic Taiwanese couple, Mo Hu-gul, 59, left, and his wife Son Suk-mi, 58, cast ballots for the first time in their lives at a polling station in Puksong-dong, Inchon, Wednesday. Yesterday’s local elections were the first chance for foreigners who have lived here for three or more years since obtaining permanent residency, to vote in Korean elections. The election law revised last year granted voting rights to foreigners, so 6,726 foreign residents who met the legal requirements were entitled to vote at the local polls to elect governors, mayors and council members. Those entitled to vote are foreign nationals aged 19 years and older who have lived in Korea for more than three years after obtaining permanent resident visas. Among them, almost 99 percent were Taiwanese residents, according to the Ministry of Justice, at 6,511 people. Fifty-one voters were Japanese, eight American, and five Chinese. READ MORE
MEXICO
Los
que sí votan allá:
El derecho al sufragio para los que no son
ciudadanos en EU Hay mexicanos que no tienen derecho a votar en ningún lado, ni en su lugar de residencia ni en su país natal. Mientras en México se discute si los connacionales que viven en el exterior pueden votar, en Estados Unidos se libra una batalla por lograr su derecho a sufragar a nivel local en varios estados, entre ellos en dos de los lugares donde viven muchos mexicanos –Nueva York y Los Angeles. Y así como van las cosas, quizá logren primero votar allá Pagan impuestos, trabajan en la comunidad, hasta llegan a pelear en la guerra, pero no tienen derecho a elegir a sus autoridades locales, y por lo tanto, no tienen voz en las decisiones concernientes a sus escuelas, servicios públicos, transporte. Incluso no se les permite participar en las juntas escolares donde se toman decisiones que afectan la educación de sus hijos. Son casi 20 millones de residentes en Estados Unidos que no son ciudadanos, de los cuales la mayoría es de origen latino. READ MORE
ANSA The Associated Press Agence
France-Presse (via Clari.net) BELGIUM
Belgium
grants all expatriates local voting rights Expatica.com As a reflection of Belgium's multicultural reality, just under 10 percent of the country's population is foreign. While the EU component of this population has the right to vote in local elections in Belgium and in European elections, the non-EU contingent goes mostly unheard and unseen on the political radar screen. Despite enjoying many of the same rights as Belgians, thousands of long-term legal residents live in the political shadows. Whether of African, Middle Eastern, Asian, Eastern European, or American origin, these people lead their lives - for the most part - as decent, law-abiding citizens. These expatriates work, pay taxes, contribute to the welfare system, and obey the country's legal code but they cannot vote. That means they may walk and talk like citizens, but they differ in one important respect: although the decisions of the political apparatus affect them, they cannot hold politicians to account. Such political muteness can be frustrating and alienating because it sends a message that immigrants are welcome to pay but that doesn't give them the right to play. The right to participate politically has inched a small step closer. A Senate select committee adopted a draft bill that proposes to grant non-Union immigrants similar local voting rights as their EU counterparts. According to the proposed legislation, expats from outside the EU who have been living here for five years or more will be granted the right to vote in municipal elections but not to stand as candidates. The proposed right to vote is 'passive', meaning that for a person to be granted it they have to seek it actively. In addition to having to register, the draft legislation proposes that prospective voters must also sign a declaration that they understand Belgian law and will uphold the constitution. READ MORE
The widely
covered June 2004 national
referendum in Ireland pertained to the birthright citizenship status
of children born on Irish soil to two "illegal immigrant"
parents (effectively changing Article 27 of the Irish Constitution). The referendum approved adding the following to Article 9 of the Irish Constitution: "Notwithstanding any other provision of this Constitution, a person born in the island of Ireland, which includes its islands and seas, who does not have, at the time of the birth of that person, at least one parent who is an Irish citizen or entitled to be an Irish citizen is not entitled to Irish citizenship or nationality, unless provided for by law." Irish Referendum Commission
SWITZERLAND
VENEZUELA The
Christian Science Monitor ADDITIONAL READING Earnest, David C. Working Title: "Voting Rights for Resident Aliens: Nationalism, Postnationalism and Sovereignty in an Era of Mass Migration." Dissertation. Earnest, David C. "Political Incorporation and Historical Institutionalism: A Comparison of the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium." Prepared for the 2005 Annual Convention of the International Studies Association. Honolulu, HI: March 5, 2005. Earnest, David C. "Voting Rights for Resident Aliens: A Comparison of 25 Democracies." Prepared for the 2003 Annual Meeting of the Northeast Political Science Association/International Studies Association-Northeast. Philadelphia, PA: November 7, 2003. Earnest, David C. "Noncitizen Voting Rights: A Survey of an Emerging Democratic Norm." Prepared for the 2003 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association. Philadelphia, PA: August 29, 2003.
Last Updated September 2, 2006. |
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